Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Week 40: The new Monday

I know three day weekends throw everyone for a loop, not just me, but you can imagine my chagrin when one of my loyal readers asked why the blog wasn't updated yet, and I replied, "I'm updating it tonight, because it's Monday." Of course, this conversation happened this afternoon (ie Tuesday). So, I hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, and for this week, Tuesday is the new Monday.

On Wednesday of last week I took Lemon for his 9 month checkup with the regular pediatrician. In preparation for the visit, I'd received a survey in the mail with a bunch of questions about Lemon's development. Because I am such a prepared mother, I even completed the survey before we saw the doctor, by which I mean that I filled it out in the exam room in between the nurse leaving and the doctor arriving. The doctor took the survey, sent it out front to have the results tabulated, and when the nurse came back with the paper bearing the results, the doctor told me that Lemon was "borderline" in one category and "delayed" in another.

Of course, I was shocked. I mean, he seems totally on par with the other kids his age in his music class, and he started crawling right on time, and so forth. But, according to the survey, he was "delayed" in social development. Which is to say that he only says one distinct syllable (ma-ma-ma-ma) and doesn't put his feet in his mouth much (why this is a social skill, only the geniuses behind the survey can tell us). In any case, since I appeared so shocked, the doctor said she would be willing to delay the home visit (HOME VISIT?!?!?) until his one year checkup, to see if he would advance enough to move out of the delayed category. She sent us home with a sheet listing fun activities to do with your baby to help with social development.

I was so unconcerned about it that I honestly didn't even read the sheet that carefully, but Papa Bear took it to heart in a big way, wondering if we should run out that night to buy Cheerios so that Lemon could practice picking them up (another important social skill, apparently). He also launched right in with reading more to Lemon, and harder books.

Whether Papa Bear's full court press had anything to do with it or not, I can't say, but somewhat amazingly, within days of the appointment, Lemon started doing almost all the things on the list that he wasn't doing before, including adding several new syllables to his vocabulary and, yes, shoving his feet in his mouth, most often when his mouth is full of food as well. We got him some Cheerios and he will carefully pick them up and hold them in his hand. He puts everything else in his mouth, so why he doesn't try it with the Cheerios I don't know, but I'm sure that will come in time. With any luck, it will come soon enough that we won't need the home visit after all!